Breaking News: COPA IS DEAD!

It's finally game over for the ill-named Child Online Protection Act.

This is the sequel to the Communications Decency Act (thus earning the name CDA 2.0) that would have outlawed anything considered "indecent" online. The original CDA, incorporated into the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996, was seriously neutered by the Supreme Court in the classic decision Reno v. ACLU. This is where the majority decision declared that the Internet was the greatest possible forum for free speech and thus deserved the greatest possible protection from government intrusion under the First Amendment.

The government responded in 1998 by passing COPA, which supposedly was designed to address specific areas of the Internet and required specific changes in websites in order to "protect children". President Bill Clinton knew that this law would not pass constitutional muster and yet he violated his Oath of Office and signed it into law anyway, saying that it was "for the courts to decide", even though they had already decided in the Reno v. ACLU decision.

The Supreme Court actually gave COPA two chances to survive. The first was when they reversed a lower court decision saying that it could not issue a blanket restraining order without first having a hearing. But thsoe same five justices did warn the government that the law WOULD PROBABLY NOT pass constitutional muster should it come before them. The White House, then under the control of the Bush Imperium, dragged their ass during the hearing, hoping to wear out the plaintiff through attrition. They failed, and the law was ruled unconstitutional.

And now the Supreme Court has put the final nail in the coffin of COPA/CDA2.0 by refusing to review the decision and let stand the lower court's ruling.

This is a law that never should have been written. It was crafted in vengeance, pushed into action by self-rightous special interest groups, signed into law by a president that violated his Oath of Office, and defended by TWO White House tenures that didn't care about the Constitution.

The good news is that it is DEAD. Hopefully it will NOT come back again through some other legislation... but I wouldn't be the farm on that.

BREAKING NEWS: COPA is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

This just came in this evening… A federal appeals court has struck down the latest federal censorship law, declaring it to be, like its predecessor, grossly UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

The Child Online Protection Act, better known by its abbreviation of COPA, is the bad sequel to the Communications Decency Act, which was passed by Republican theocrats and signed into law by a Democrat Narcissist. This would outlaw any material online that children COULD access that would be deemed “harmful to minors”. The only way a website operator would be protected would be if they set up a commercial subscription service that would require validation by merely a credit card.

I’m going to have a lot more about this on my show this weekend, but I just wanted to say that I’m glad this decision came out the way that it did.

Eco-spin on the rampage

Last week the US Supreme Court issued a new ruling that supposedly was a setback to the Bush Imperium.

At stake was whether or not the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act and whether or not they can stand aside and not do it. Confusing, I know, but part 2 was something that the Imperium wanted for their “friends”.

The Supreme Court pretty much said that, yes, the EPA CAN regulate vehicle emissions, and that, no, they CANNOT sidestep their responsibility unless they can prove the danger wasn't there.

Now what amazes me is the level of spin involved on this. Spin 1 was that the Supreme Court was siding with eco-nuts & "global climate change". Spin 2 was that this was all a "setback" to the Imperium.

The horsecrap meter is in the serious red-zone here, guys.

First, the Supreme Court DID NOT rule for "global climate change" or for the eco-nuts. They ruled on the side of GOVERNMENT CONTROL! You have a government agency set up by Congress and enacted by the White House, and ordered to act based on specific LAWS as passed by Congress and signed by the President. THAT is what the Supreme Court ruled for. They said that there's a government agency and a law in place and you cannot violate these things!

Second, this is not a setback to the Imperium! The Imperium IS the GOVERNMENT! All the Supreme Court said was that the Imperium CANNOT avoid doing their jobs. Either obey the law or change the law but that's it! And this is EXACTLY what the Imperium wants to hear because there are a couple of OTHER laws that they have, in the past, not tried to enforce. But now that the Supremes ruled in this case, the Imperium can use that as the justification to rigidly enforce OTHER laws!

The level of sheer ignorance just astonishes me! Come on people! The White House has plenty of shysters on their team! You don’t think they wouldn’t be told what kind of ruling to expect?